BERKELEY—The discovery of a meth lab in a city-funded housing program has west Berkeley residents fighting its potential return after the home was closed for toxic cleanup.

Berkeley police arrested 47-year-old Todd McColmb July 19 after a search of his apartment in the transitional housing home at 2240 9th Street turned up “items consistent with a small clandestine meth lab,” according to Berkeley Police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss.

Items seized included scales, acetone, mason jars, a crock pot with dried white residue in it, and several boxes of cold medicine.

“All those items are well known in our experience to be used in the manufacture of methamphetamine,” Kusmiss said.

Police were able to search McColmb’s residence, which is next door to a day care called the Nia House Learning Center, because he was a person of interest the same day in a drive-by shooting on 7th Street, Kusmiss said. At the time, was on probation for an assault charge with a firearm and had a restraining order against him, Kusmiss said.

The Alameda County District Attorney is waiting for confirmation of the chemicals found in the apartment to charge McColmb, Kusmiss said.

The city, which owns the home and rents it out for $1 a year to the homeless organization called Building Options for Self Sufficiency, or BOSS, closed it for toxic waste cleanup related to the lab.

City officials say it could take six months to clean it up.

Meanwhile, neighbors are wondering weather BOSS should be allowed to come back once the home is cleaned up.

BOSS receives $412,000 a year in funding from the City of Berkeley for its various homeless programs and has used the city-owned home for 21 years, said city spokeswoman Mary Kay Clunies-Ross.

Jill Nielsen, a social worker who lives next door with her husband and infant son, said BOSS blew it and shouldn’t be allowed to come back.

“The BOSS residents living there had histories of incarceration, mental illness and substance abuse,” Nielsen said. “They were allowed to live in a residence right next to a preschool, without any on-site supervision.” Nielsen added the city is as negligent as BOSS because it was aware of the “ineffective supervision,” at the home.

BOSS Executive Director boona cheema, called McColmb “one bad apple” out of nine staying at the home and said she is open to having a supervisor there if the city decides it can resume operations once the house is cleaned up.

“Let’s have a community meeting, sit down, and look at what BOSS could have done differently,” cheema said. “If the neighborhood wants a higher level of supervision, we can do that. If they want a different kind of client, we can do that too. But let’s not shut it down because it has homeless people living there who have drug and alcohol issues and mental issues.”

City Councilman Darryl Moore had scheduled a Nov. 25 community meeting on the subject but said City Manager Phil Kamlarz asked him to postpone it until after the first of the year so the city can have time to decide whether it will renew its month-to-month lease with BOSS.

“The fact that BOSS didn’t have proper supervision is a major concern to me,” Moore said. “I’m not saying BOSS is irresponsible, I’m just disappointed about what happened there.”

Clunies-Ross said the city has made no decision on whether to renew the lease. She declined to comment on whether the city should take responsibility for what happened at the BOSS site, but said once it found out about the lab, it did take immediate responsibility in removing the chemicals, evacuating residents, drafting a cleanup plan and notifying the child care center and immediate neighbors.

“It could have been BOSS’s responsibility to clean it up, evacuate and tell the neighbors, but we did, and we didn’t have to do that,” Clunies-Ross said.

Tak Nakamoto, a neighbor who lives on 10th Street, said he learned about the meth lab in November at a neighborhood association meeting and is angry the city didn’t tell more neighbors than it did.

Nakamoto said he supports transitional housing in residential neighborhoods, “but some of the neighbors are questioning whether this is a good location next to a preschool. And it’s on 9th Street which is historically a heavy drug street.”

Although Nia House executive director Lee Wagner was not available for comment on how he feels about BOSS returning to the home, one of the parents who brings her child to the day care said she sees no problem.

Shemena Campbell, who was picking up her son in the evening there last week, said her mother has spent time in transitional housing, and she supports it.

“Pulling a NIMBY trip on it is just so Berkeley,” Campbell said.

In a written statement, Jennifer Kaufer, president of the Nia House board of directors, said the school learned about the questionable activities at the house in July.

“While many in the Nia House community support the work of BOSS, there is real concern over the apparent lack of oversight at the BOSS-occupied house on 9th Street. Our concerns are for the safety of the children, first and foremost.”

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